Congratulations, team!

I hope my teammates enjoyed a good night's sleep (surprise: I preferred my bed to sleeping in the van!) and are patching things up with their families and/or significant others who let them drop out of sight for two days of the Rank Strangers adventure. My thanks to them and to you for making our outing a big success.

I will post few pictures from Friday morning in Madison (see them on the right side of the blog). Please send me your photos and I'll consolidate them and post them on the web. I'll also use them for our annual photo book; I want to get that out to you within the next few months.

Eric

Finish line!

Rank Strangers finished the 2009 MC200 in 29:25, a pace of 8:42. That compares very favorably to our last finish, 2007, which we did at an 8:52 pace. And we thought we were fast then. And the race is 12 miles longer now.

Van 1 is currently ferrying the Madison crew back home.

Congratulations to all 13 (don't ask) 2009 Strangers for a great race and a lot of fun!

Almost there

Van 1 is currently chilling at TA 35, the last transfer point before the finish.

We completed our rotation just before 9 this morning and headed immediately for breakfast at Emily's on Sheridan in Zion--which reminded us why we do this crazy thing.

Off to the finish--Eric, bring us home!

Almost home

Fred is on the course for the penultimate leg...Eric will start the final
leg within the half hour.

ETA at Montrose Harbor

2:30PM is our estimate.

Pancakes at TA 27!

Awesome pancake and coffee stand. Won't hold us back at the Starlight in Zion, though.

Van#2 plans to be in Zion by 8AM

...to be ready to take handoff from Van#1. Our secret weapons are a pair
of Meachams to substitute for a late dropout and Steve, who has to duck out
early to attend a family reunion in Iowa.

Accounting for Van#2's night shift

Eric ran twice and everyone else ran fast. Damp weather and the dark made
for good running. Distances and tiimes:

1. Eric - 6.3 miles. 51 minutes and 15 seconds
2. Steve - 7.6 1:00:50*
3. Marc - 6.5. 46:41
4. Brad - 3.0. 25:23
5. Eric - 6.9. 57:48
6. Fred - 4.0 29:28*

For the shift in total, that's 34.3 miles in 4 hours and 31 minutes.

*their fancy watches may tell a slightly different story. Believe them.

Still only very light rain...

...As van 1 begins its final rotation. Starting to get light now. Some sleep at St. Andrews, though the guy with the huge hair also has mad snoring skills.

Mark is done and Anne is on the course now.

Van#2 finishes second shift

3:26AM

That just about says it all.

Now to figure out how much time we have to rest before we need to drive
from Racine to Zion to start again.

Happily, we are importing some ringers to help us out for our third shift.

A little drippy

The promised rain came as Marc set off on his 6.5 mile leg at 12:44AM.
Fred says it isn't bad, but he isn't running. Yet.

Dark!

I am celebrating first night run for Van#2 with gatorade and oreos. Steve
is out the now...south side of Milwaukee.
The rain that Mark threatened hasn't appeared. Cool. Good running
weather.

Pasta at Martin Luther HS

Yum, and well-earned. Now off to Racine to sleep before rotation 3 for van 1. Still dry, but maybe not for long.

Rain coming

Art, van 1's last runner in this rotation, is on his way. But so is the rain...possibly heavy...will be here in a couple hours or so. :(

Van 1 back on duty

"Mayor" Mark got us going again from Wales after a rude early awakening due to unreasonable speed from van 2.

Anne's dad met us at Carroll College, but brought no baked treats this year.

Jeff is on the course now, on the New Berlin bike path.

Miracle in Pewaukee

Fred's friends Jeff and Heidi Brock hosted us for hot showers - my dream of
getting cleaned up once during the race has been realized. (Totally
impromptu - Fred didn't realize we would be passing by their house, called,
and 10 minutes later 5 sweaty guys were at the door). We are going to have
a pasta feed before we get back on the road.

On to part 2 (first shift done!)

Van#2 wrapped up their first shift an hour ago and put Van#1 back to work.
Van#2 was blazing from the hot sun and also over-excited from riding around
in the van all day waiting for action. Steve ran 6.5 miles in 48:56, Marc
ran 6.1 in 47:27, Brad ran 5.8 in 49:03, Eric ran 5.7 in 43:17 and Fred did
6.4 in 48:53. Look for a more sedate pace - at least from me - later on.

That was 30.5 miles in 3 hours and 56 minutes.

Van#2's second shift will start at approximately 11PM.

1 run down and still chipper

At 5:12pm Marc Damerjian commented: "this still seems like a good idea!"

Strangers at rest

Wales transition area.

Culvers=yum

Van 1 has finished its rotation and is enjoying the traditional lunch at culvers. Jennifer, a culvers virgin, was bamboozeled by the menu.
Now we're all stuck to the vinyl seats.

Next, off to Wales to nap before resuming our rotation about 6:30.

Marc on the Glacial Drumlin Trail

He is 28 minutes into his 6.2 mile leg - he'll take us to mile 45 and a
handoff to Brad at Helenville Bike Depot.

(Steve blazed through his 6.5 miles leadoff leg - approximately 49
minutes.)

Curious George revealed

3-year old Avery Damerjian's doll just popped out of father Marc's bag.
George may get some running action tonight. (Marc insists it was Avery's
idea that George make the trip).

32.5 miles in 4 hours 55 minutes

That's what Van#1 did on their first shift. Great work!

Jennifer on the trail

Mark in Van#1 reports Jennifer hit the trail at 12:41pm, taking over after
Rachael's 7 miler.

It is hot.

Van#1's rotation is Mark, Anne, Jeff, Rachael, Jennifer, Art. Their legs
for the first shift - the one they are on- are 5.2, 6.2, 5, 7, 3.6, 5.4
miles.

Van#2's first shift, which should start at about 2pm, will be Steve (6.5
miles), Marc (6.1), Brad (5.8), Eric (5.7) and Fred (6.4). We finish the
shift in Wales, WI.

Van#2 - lunching, not yet running

Van#2 (Steve, Marc, Eric, Fred) had a fine lunch at "Cafe on the Park" in
Lake Mills (passing on the walk-up bratwurst place next door; who knew?!)
and have about 2 hours to prepare for the handoff from Van#1. Naps?
Possibly. Certainly need to get into run clothes.

The race routine

Things get down to the basics on race day – run, drive, eat, sleep.
Repeat.

During the relay, each team member runs three legs, each leg ranging
between 3 - 8 miles and varying in difficulty. So, from the elite runner
down to the novice jogger, it's the perfect relay race for anyone.

Each team is responsible for providing two support vehicles, with six
runners in each vehicle. The first vehicle will drop off the first runner,
drive ahead a few miles, cheer the runner on, and provide them with water,
snacks, and plenty of love. That vehicle will then drive ahead to the first
exchange point to drop off the second runner, and pick up the first runner
when that leg is complete. They will repeat this pattern for six legs until
they hand off to their second vehicle. This leapfrogging pattern will
continue all the way to the finish line.

The team meets for pre-race breakfast on Friday morning.  Once the race is
underway our vans don't spend a lot of time together.

There is a small bit of paperwork required -- the results log.  Each van
must document the finish time of each leg.

A warning phone call when the transition is within 20 or 30 minutes is
customary.  Timing can be a touchy subject when a van's members have been
sleeping – sometimes the van leader will request a specific amount of lead
time.

He dropped the baton!

Mark Clear fumbled the first handoff to Anne Martino but we're pretty sure
those seconds won't mean much to the final standings.?

Kay Burnett rode up from Chicago with Van#2 to get a first hand look at the
action. She is on the course with Anne's mom, MaryLou but soon Kay will be
on the bus back to Chicago. MaryLou may follow us as far as Wales, WI.

Mark Clear is on the road

We are waiting to cheer him on at the 2 mile point. ("Onward to victory,"
says Marc Damerjian, who hasn't taken his turn yet and may think victory is
possible).

Can't get enough of MC200? Get race tweets

Amateur radio operations assist in monitoring the MC200 from Madison to Chicago. The following note was circulated June 7 by Jerry Martin - KC9BDA of the MC200 Comm Team. Since Rank Strangers won't be challenging for race leadership it is extremely unlikely we will be mentioned by name.

Last year the "hammies" were broadcasting a race summary every hour which we called "Voice Of The Race" (VOTR). This was primarily for the other hams "downstream" to let them know a quick overview and if the race pace was ahead/behind. That way they knew to open their TA's [Transition Areas] soon or later that our scheduled time. When these VOTR updates occurred, many runners began to crowd around the hams to listen to these brief race status reports. We want to get this information out to more people.

With the severe weather we experienced last year, several "weather holds" were implemented due to lightning and tornado activity within the 12 mile safe zone we established.

To be able to get this useful and very important information out to the non-hams, (and really anyone interested in following the race progress), we established a "Twitter" account. This allows anyone with a computer at home, and/or a cell phone with a text message plan to receive all these briefings.

Simply go to twitter.com to sign up for a free account, and search for MC200_Comm. You should "follow" the MC200_Comm link, and if you wish to get these updates on your cell phone, enable that feature. It's pretty easy, and we will begin testing our VOTR message format this coming week with some sample messages. We want to get the most information on the small screen and yet be easy to read.

We plan to broadcast the VOTR at the bottom of the hour and send the tweet at the same time. Weather broadcasts and tweets will go out as needed.

Rank Strangers - a history lesson

The Rank Strangers team was formed for the inaugural 2005 Great Midwest Relay (GMR) which became the MC200 in 2007. Eric Engdahl of Chicago and Mark Clear of Madison organized the team. The zany nature of the event appealed to both of them; they thought it would be great fun to participate in the non-stop 200 mile, 24+ hour event.  All they needed was a team.

Run relays are not rare – there are famous ones like Hood to Coast in Oregon  and River to River in southern Illinois .  Those races are very popular and consequently hard to get into, so in addition to being in our front yard, the GMR had the appeal of being wide open.  

Recruiting for the first year’s team brought out stalwarts who have stayed with Rank Strangers from GMR to MC200.  Eric, Mark, Jeff Shampo and Art Saffran ran all of the first four races.  Holly Dowling ran three times.  There has been a nice split between Illinois and Wisconsin runners.  By 2009 there had been 28 different runners representing Rank Strangers.

The course has been substantially the same each year, and Mark is always with van #1 and Eric with Van #2, but just about everything else changes for Rank Strangers, with new runners joining and the Midwest weather showing its stuff.

Rank Strangers typically finishes in the middle of the back.  Our priority is fun, not fast, although we have a number of experienced marathoners (including Boston qualifiers like Holly, Art and Eric), and even Iron Men (Holly, Martin Tagge). That hasn’t stopped some of our runners from blazing to fast times on their legs, however.

In 2005 the team finished 42nd out of 68 teams in a time of 29 hours and 6 minutes.

In 2006 we were 39th out of 61 teams in 28 hours and 12 minutes.

In 2007 we were 79th out of 115 teams in 28 hours and 13 minutes.

The team did not finish the course in 2008, stopping at the 192 mile mark, at Northwestern University just north of the Chicago city line, when race was delayed by a tornado warning.  Already hours behind schedule because of an earlier tornado delay, we opted to abandon rather than sitting out the delay.  (The race did resume several hours later).  The 192 miles equalled the distance of the previous races.

Mark has taken support of the event to an extra level by having his company, IMS, host the relay’s website.  This reduced the cost to team members – the race waived our registration fee.

Credit for the team name goes to Keith Dudding who drew inspiration from the old song, "I am a poor wayfaring stranger travelling through this world of woe."   He added, “actually, after we've all run a leg or two, we would more closely resemble a tune made popular by The Stanley Brothers ... ‘Rank Strangers’.”

Four days and counting... 2009 MC200

The Rank Strangers will are ready to go.   Mark Clear will get things started at 9am Friday in Madison and by mid-afternoon on Saturday we will reach Montrose Harbor in Chicago.  (We are dusting off this blog as a way to keep our fans apprised of progress during the race.  You'll see entries below for 2007 but nothing for last year).

The team (years for the veterans shown in parentheses - Mark, Art, Eric and Jeff have been on all 4 previous teams):

Mark Clear (2005-08)
Art Saffran (2005-2008)
Eric Engdahl (2005-2008)
Anne Martino (2007)
Jeff Shampo (2005-08)
Jennifer Sell
Marc Damerjian
Steve Hill
Fred Bounds
Rachael Weiker
Brad Clark

Thanks, everyone, for your interest and support as we have prepared for this year's event.